The present invention generally relates to an electrical connector, and more particularly, to a multi-electrode connector which includes a female connector unit and a male connector unit each having a plurality of terminals so as to be used for the connection of a wire harness or the like, by coupling corresponding forward half portions of the connector units.
Commonly, in a multi-electrode connector, since an extremely large number of terminals are to be inserted in a single connector, a complicated terminal inserting work is required, and erroneous insertion of terminals may occur. Moreover, since a strong fitting force is required due to the large contact resistance between the groups of terminals during coupling, countermeasures have been considered for alleviating such problems. As disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Publications Jikkohei Nos. 2-18934 and 2-20766 and Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication Tokkaisho No. 62-145671, there are proposed arrangements in which a plurality of unit connectors are collected to constitute a single unit of a multi-electrode female connector (It is to be noted here that the connector inserted with the female terminals is referred to as the female connector).
More specifically, in the above Jikkohei Nos. 2-18934 and 2-20766, it is arranged that coupling portions are provided on the side walls of the unit female connectors so as to form the multi-electrode female connector by aligning and collecting the unit female connector groups by connecting the coupling portions to each other, while the unit male connectors to be in pair with the multi-electrode connector are individually fitted to the individual unit female connectors or a single unit of the multi-electrode male connectors is formed.
Meanwhile, in the above Tokkaihei No. 62-145671 referred to above, the arrangement is so made that the multi-electrode female connector is constituted as one unit by inserting the group of unit connectors side by side in a frame, while for the male connector to be paired therewith, a multi-electrode male connector of a single item corresponding to the multi-electrode female connector is employed. Both connectors are mechanically fitted to each other for coupling by connecting bolts.
Although the conventional multi-electrode connectors do somewhat alleviate the problems described earlier since the collective structure of the unit connector groups are adopted, the collective structure is limited only to one side of the female and male connectors, and therefore, problems still remain related to the complicated terminal inserting work and the quality of insertion of terminals.
Moreover, the arrangements as in the above Jikkohei No. 2-18934, etc, adapted to connect the unit connectors at the side portions thereof require not only troublesome coupling work, but extremely complicated work for individual fitting of the unit connectors, and are further inferior in the mechanical stability of the aligned unit connectors, on the whole, due to the construction for connecting the neighboring unit connectors to each other, because the aligned attitude of the connectors tends to be deformed by the fitting resistance. The result is an inferior fitting characteristic.